Mostly Latino alliance seeks to warn drivers who don’t have license

north county 
A group that uses texts and social media to alert drivers about police checkpoints in North County is trying to upgrade its system so the warnings can reach a wider audience.

The Alianza Comunitaria, or Community Alliance, has been sending out texts, tweets and Facebook messages telling its mostly Latino group of followers when and where police checkpoints are taking place. The group’s aim is to help reduce the number of people caught driving without a license.

Latinos make up the bulk of unlicensed drivers in North County because many are undocumented immigrants who are barred under state law from getting licenses. Those who are caught driving without a license can have their vehicles seized, resulting in hundreds of dollars in fines and fees.

“Alianza was formed to protect the community from checkpoints,” said Ricardo Favela of Fallbrook, a spokesman for the group.

People can sign up to receive messages through the group’s website, but the text alert system — which sends out messages to 50 subscribers at a time — has reached its capacity, said Lilia Serrano, Alianza’s coordinator.

The group recently launched a fundraising campaign to purchase an Internet-based service that will allow it to add more subscribers and send alert messages all at once, rather than in batches.

Reaction to the alerts is mixed. Some law enforcement agencies say the group helps publicize the checkpoints, but others say the alliance helps drunken drivers and other scofflaws to avoid police.

The group’s work bothers Tisha Bennett, who heads the Citizens of Escondido for Road Safety, a group that favors the checkpoints.

“The purpose of a checkpoint is to find people who are driving illegally,” Bennett said. “The whole point is to encourage people to obey the law.”

The alliance is made up of a handful of representatives from grass roots immigrant rights groups, such as the Escondido Human Rights Committee and the Human Rights Council of Oceanside. It was formed in 2008 to protest the frequent use of checkpoints, especially in Escondido.

In 2009, the Escondido Police Department seized an average of 50 vehicles per checkpoint. That number has dropped significantly since a law took effect in 2011 that prohibits police from automatically seizing the vehicle of an unlicensed driver. Under the new law, unlicensed drivers can call a licensed driver to take the vehicle away.

To warn drivers about upcoming checkpoints in North County cities, Alianza monitors police news releases that often say when a checkpoint will take place, but not specifically where. Subscribers act as lookouts and call or contact the group through social media websites, such as Twitter and Facebook, to notify them of checkpoints.

Members of the group then drive by the area where checkpoints were spotted to confirm whether police are present. If confirmed, the group alerts its subscribers about the checkpoint.

The alliance has a database of about 1,500 cellphone subscribers, Favela said.

There are similar alert systems in Southern California that rely heavily on social media, such as Mr. Checkpoint, which has 44,000 followers on Twitter. But Serrano said that, although Alianza also uses social media, text messages are key because many of the group’s Latino followers don’t have Internet service on their cellphones.